Grim Matchstick
| image1= Match.png|Base GrimIcon1.png|Phase 1 GrimIcon2.png|Phase 2 GrimIcon3.png|Final Phase |caption1=Grim's base look and his death card images |phases=3 |forms=2 |location=Inkwell Isle Two |affiliation= |moveset=Fireballs Tail Lash Eye Ripples Firey Nose Fire March Cluster Fire Flamethrower |minions=Flame Minions |parry=Eye Ripples |level: = Fiery Frolic|hitpoints_in_simple = 1200|hitpoints_in_regular = 1700|hitpoints_in_expert = 1900|gender = Male|role = Dragon (Phase 1 and Phase 2) Hydra (Final Phase)}}Grim Matchstick is the dragon boss in Cuphead. He appears in Inkwell Isle Two and is fought in the Fiery Frolic level. Description Appearance Grim is a green-scaled western dragon with small legs and arms and average wingspan, a huge tail in which he used to lash the player/s, huge mouth with long tongue for him to breathe huge fire from his lungs and white plates on his back. Personality Grim Matchstick strives to spook people, making "ghostly" motions whenever the battle commences. He also stutters a lot when speaking, as shown by his death screen lines. He is a playful dragon that tends to have fun which also proves on his death message on his first phase. Interestingly, Grim is one of the only two bosses (the other being Weepy) in the game that doesn't actually want to or intentionally tries to hurt Cuphead and Mugman. He views himself as misunderstood, and apologizes for being forced into putting the brothers in a hot seat if they lose to him in his second phase. He even suggests that the brothers should run away after he turns into a hydra. Intro The battle takes place on the cloudy area above Grim's tower where there are no ground to suppress any kind of fall damage. Grim Matchstick introduces himself by making a spooky gesture with his wings and face, possibly in an attempt to look scary. Phase 1 In this phase, Grim mostly hangs out at the right side of the arena and damages the player/s with these attacks: *Grim shoots ripples from his eyes, which consisted of 3 ring-like projectiles (4 after a damage threshold), at the players. The final ring of the beams can be parried. *He can shoot fireballs that travel in a wave pattern. He sometimes shoots two at the same time that crisscross each other, but only does this when he reaches a damage threshold. He also uses his tail to attack by hiding it on the bottom screen before jabbing the player/s. This can be avoided if players pay attention to the bottom screen and the sound of the attack, which is the sound of his tail wiggling. After taking enough damage, he will slowly disappear from the right screen and travel to the other side, which can be seen in the background. He later appears on the bottom left and commences the second phase of the battle. Phase 2 In this phase, Grim will send out a parade of marching fireballs that travel across his tongue, which he stretches out as a platform. Some of the grinning fireballs will jump either directly towards the player or to the right side of the screen (no matter the location of the player/s) in an arc trajectory, and try to damage the player/s. The fireballs will crouch facing left or right before leaping, telegraphing where they are going to jump. If the player stays to the left, or only dodges fireballs by jumping left they will rarely have to worry about fireballs jumping in a random direction. Grim also shoots out smoke or fire from his nose to damage the player/s if they run into it. After taking enough damage, Grim is seemingly defeated with a beaten-up look until he grows two more heads then the middle head makes a funny "evil" laugh gesture and the background turns into a rain storm. In simple difficulty however, he won't grow any extra heads and the battle will end instead. Final phase In the final phase, players now face three-headed Grim in a rain storm. Grim, along with his two other heads, shoots about 6 to 9 cluster fireballs at the player/s, which can be destroyed but clustered into four directions in a plus formation. After dodging a number of fireballs, Grim's middle head will morph into a flamethrower and fire a stream of flames that go right down the middle of the screen two times before returning to normal. Once the players damage him enough times, Grim will be defeated with an X mark on both eyes, opened tongue, and downed ears of all three of his heads. Gallery Grim 3 Head.gif Trivia *He's based off of the Mecha Dragon boss fight from Mega Man 2. *In the introduction to his fight, he is shown without the claws that can be seen in the ensuing fight. It is unknown why this animation is missing the pointy white claws. *His final, three-headed form is presumably based off King Ghidorah from the Godzilla franchise or the Hydra, a three-headed dragon from mythology. *The castle in the background of the fight is actually a real-life model. *Grim was one of the few sample bosses playable on the 2015 Demo. *In the 2017 demo, Grim was the only one having no comment about the player's death. *The name "Grim Matchstick" is most likely a reference to Grim Natwick, the animator who originally designed Betty Boop. It might also be a possible reference to the Brothers Grimm considering that dragons and castles are part of their Fairy Tales. **His last name is likely a pun, as matchsticks are used to create fire. **Like his namesake, Grim Matchstick shares the same stutter with Grim Natwick. *On Simple difficulty, the final phase is absent, and the battle just ends at the end of phase 2. *Originally, Grim fired different colored balls from his eyes instead of the rings he shoots now. Category:Characters Category:Bosses Category:Male Category:Inkwell Isle 2